Buy it Now in Online Auctions
Expert Tips for Sellers

Auction Seller - Buy It Now Tip #1

An auction that appears in the Buy It Now search results pages is seen by more prospective bidders who want immediate gratification. 

We recommend the Buy it Now option for ebay auction sellers because it not only increases the traffic to that specific listing, it can help bring visitors to their other auctions and ebay store.

Remember, as an ebay seller, using buy it now for items starting under $10.00 only costs an additional .05 fee, which is a bargain considering how many potential buyers it can bring to your listing (see tip #5 below).

In fact, it really breathed a whole new life into ebay when it was introduced a few years ago, due to the immediacy and excitement it brought to online auctions.

Auction Seller - Buy It Now Tip #2

We recommend staying away from reserve price auctions unless a Buy it Now price is also used.

This way, the bidder knows what your pie-in-the-sky dream price is, and will be more likely to bid than if that cap is not there... After all, they can see the Buy it Now price listed on their screen.

Now they know that the reserve price on the item is set somewhere below this, which makes them more comfortable in bidding in a reserve price auction.

Many people just will not bid in regular reserve price auctions. without the Buy it Now price set over top of it-  otherwise, they don't know what kind of crazy, astronomically high price has been set on the item, so they may not want to waste their bid.

Buy it Now is a subtle way for auction users to hint at their reserve, without actually disclosing it.  Bidders will at least have the Buy it Now as a reality check on the seller's high price.

Auction Seller - Buy It Now Tip #3

Remember, the Buy It Now price in an auction disappears as soon as the first bid is placed (or when the reserve price is met).  So make sure you don't set your starting bid too low when you are using the buy it now option.

If you do, crafty buyers who spot your item and may want to buy it, so they place the low starting bid just so they can make the buy it now option vanish before another buyer comes along.

Then they won't have as much competition later on as the urgent nature has now vanished (until the closing bell frenzy), and they won't have to pay the Buy it Now price, which may be more than they are willing to spend.  They can just track all their low early bids in their My ebay section, and bid on the items later if they feel like it.

Buyers will also do this to keep track of items and what the heck- they may snag some great bargains at garage sale prices.  It is true that the item may close for more than the original buy it now price that was listed, but they would not have bought it for that price anyway, and now they don't have to pay their low bid.  It's a win, win for them either way.  But the seller loses, because now they have not only wasted their Buy It Now fee, but quite likely will not see as much return on their auction (unless its a very high demand item).

Auction Seller - Buy It Now Tip #4

As an auction seller, set your opening bid at least 70 percent of the Buy It Now price.  If its a really high dollar item and you are concerned about people not wanting to bid, set your price lower but use a reserve price in between the starting price and the Buy it Now amount.

The reserve price will discourage some people from just bidding to knock out the buy it now option.

Remember, the Buy it Now option does terminate once the reserve is met, so make your reserve price a reasonable amount that you wouldn't mind selling your item for.  This way, bidders may try and fish for the reserve to remove the Buy it Now option, but they are just driving the bids up to a fair amount for you, and increasing your item's bidding activity.

Auction Seller - Buy It Now Tip #5

When listing items for auction on ebay, it is important to remember ebay's new Buy it Now Tiered Fee Structure.

For sellers listing items starting at less than ten dollars, we recommend using Buy it Now (keeping our other tips in mind of course) as the added exposure and traffic it will bring is worth the nickel fee, and many items that start at this low amount sell.

However, if you are listing lots of stuff near the fifty dollar level, you want to be sure it has a reasonably good chance of being sold with the Buy it Now format, since the new fee is now fifty cents!

Remember from our basic bidder tips, Unless the item is rare or in high demand, it has much less of a chance selling when it is started at a higher price.  The price resistance for buyers on items selling at fifty dollars is higher, so naturally, you won't get as many spontaneous bids than you would for stuff at the ten dollar level.

Ebay knows this as well, which is why the more your item starts for, the higher the fees are for all listing features - if an item is less likely to sell, they are losing money by clogging up their system with overpriced stuff, when they should be making profits from it.

So, in cases where the item is started for over fifty dollars, many ebayers do not yet realize they are paying ten times what they used to for the Buy it Now listings.  If they have forty auctions closing that week that all started above $50 using the Buy it Now feature... guess what?  They are out an additional twenty bucks!

Now more than ever, it pays to use good judgment when using any listing features on ebay that have an extra, premium fee... See buy it now auction fees for more info.

Learn more - See our:
Buy it Now - Expert Bidder Tips

Learn more about Reserve Price Auctions

See All Auction Tips for Sellers

See Buy it Now examples on ebay: